Sunday, July 17, 2005

Governor Baldacci

At the outset of his administration, Baldacci was both seemingly successful and popular, putting through a $5.6 billion bipartisan state budget, winning the support of over two-thirds of the Legislature in the process. His policy initiatives such as Dirigo Health and Pine Tree economic zones, also won wide initial acclaim. He vanquished a billion-dollar budget gap without a major tax increase. So far, so good.

But something else happened, even before the unpopular plan - from which he later wisely retreated - to sell off 16 years of future lottery proceeds in order to temporarily balance the budget. [...] Early in 2004, an intense public focus on the perceived need for an Augusta initiated alternative to the citizen-based tax revolt put the governor on the spot. There developed a perception that the Blaine House was not able to captivate public and legislative support for meaningful tax reform alternatives.

2 Comments:

Interesting column, in a let's-point-out-the-obvious sort of way. Let's also not forget that Senator Peter Mills is a name that often comes up as a potential GOP candidate for governor in the next round. I'm not sure of the relationship between Peter and Paul -- that candy bar thing gets in the way.